In many industries, the ability to converse and share images with an individual located remotely can provide a great advantage. Communicating by phone is inadequate in many cases, and particularly in the medical industry, where it is critical to have visual information to make a thorough diagnosis. A device that could send visual information on the spot would save time, and money in shipping costs. Such devices exist today, but they are very expensive and typically communicate only between two fixed points.
Many industries in today's economy could take advantage of a portable and versatile device that could communicate still images and audio to remote locations without the need for a central unit. Today, an individual must physically visit a site, or send a hard copy of an image. A real estate agent must ship pictures across the country, consuming time and shipping costs. An insurance claims agent must send pictures to a central office to process claims. An engineer must physically visit a site to inspect problems.
The medical industry in particular may benefit from such device. A rural doctor must consult by telephone and describe the injury, usually unsatisfactorily, or ship x-rays or other diagnostic data, or even send the patient to the specialist. An Emergency Medical Technician must describe injuries to emergency room personnel. A doctor on-call must drive into the emergency room, not knowing specifics of an injury. A physician must wait for x-ray, MRI, or CT images to be shipped to an insurance company for authorization. All of this takes up valuable treatment time.
In recent years, medical costs have sky-rocketed. Driven by HMO's and other economic factors, efforts to decrease health care costs are being aggressively pursued. A device that transmits images of patient injuries in a matter of seconds to anywhere in the world would save expensive shipping costs of such images. More importantly, it would expedite the treatment of injuries, and offer access to specialists in geographic areas where it is not possible today.